8-Year-Old Suffers From Burn Marks After Teens Put Rope Around his Neck

The incident is being called a lynching

Late last month, an biracial boy from New Hampshire had burn marks around his neck, violence that was reportedly inflicted at the hands of local teens.

Family members are calling the incident a lynching.

8-year-old Quincy had been playing with a group of teenage boys in his neighborhood. They began calling him racial slurs and even threw rocks at him. The teens then took some rope from an old tire swing and had Quincy put it around his neck.

“The older boys had put the ropes around their necks, and they told Quincy that it was his turn to do it,” stated, Cassandra Merlin, Quincy’s mother. “And Quincy got up on the table and put the rope around his neck, and another kid came up from behind him and pushed him off of the picnic table. And they walked away and left him there hanging.”

Merlin’s sister shared a photo of the injuries Quincy sustained.

Advertisements

When my sister calls me when something is wrong I feel it in my bones before ever picking up the phone. Tonight I was…

Quincy’s younger sister was with him at the time of the incident, and she began yelling for help. Merlin came running and rushed Quincy to the hospital, where doctors recommended he be airflighted and transported to another facility.

Initially, Claremont Police Chief Mark Chase refused to comment. However, he released a statement on Tuesday stating that the department had opened an investigation to look into the incident.

Merlin says she wants to move to a better area for her children.

“My main goal is to try to remove ourselves from that area,” Merlin said. “I am not trying to leave [the town completely], only because this is where my family is, my mother, my brother is around here, but just to move to a better area, one where Quincy doesn’t have to be reminded of what happened.”

Community members and activists gathered Tuesday night to reassure the Merlin family that they will stand behind Quincy. Walking through the city, they chanted “Quincy’s life matters.”